another farewell

Last night marked the farewell for another batch of fmssrcy NCOs, and also just as importantly, the handing over of leadership to yet another batch. Maybe it doesn't seem very much significant to many, but for those who have stayed with the unit for a long time, i'm sure it must have.

Personally, I never fail to be amused by how much these juniors have matured so quickly over a short span of time. From arragont brats (I wouldn't deny myself being one) to humble and respectable leaders, something that all of us owe to our seniors. As the unit's leadership gets passed down over time, its in the soul of these leaders I still find a little of Vincent Sir, Richard, my brother, Jing Yang, Johnathan, Poh Huat, Chanel, Fion and the many other devoted seniors who have moulded us to what we have become today.

Though they may not be seen around very often nowadays, their spirit has always remained in the unit. Each time an instruction, scolding or advice is given, a punishment implemented, and a planning taking place, its when they are there with us.

In any case, a job well done to the graduating ncos! Days ahead without you are going to be so different. New people and new problems to deal with, haha! But I believe new learning experiences too. Hope some of you guys will return as VIs then.

Cheers!

Projects!

Projects, projects, projects... they seem to be never ending. three down, two to go.

In any case, postings for internship was out today and my attached office is located at East Coast Road... shucks. Attachment period lasts from 27 Aug to 12 Oct. There goes my holidays. :(

Turning Eighteen

Who would have expect turning eighteen to be such a big deal, but it has sure proven itself to be so. Sometimes I wonder if I'm moving well along with the age, simply to put it - I think I'm growing up too quickly. I can already feel heavier responsibilities piling up quickly over time and things I've couldn't imagine myself doing so soon - driving, m18 movies, legal access to clubs, etc. Its only a matter of time that I'll be serving the nation and then having to find a real job. But then again, I guess there never fails to always have a little something beautiful amongst the darkness and uncertainty that one can look forward to in life... just like friends such as these!

Old time pals

VIs















fmssrcy juniors















Chanel looking her best!

A heartfelt Thank You to all who made my 18th Birthday such a memorable one and of course to Chanel, Nirma, Yunxing, Brandon, Wen Fang, Carissa, Simon, Saleha, Xiang Feng for making it an even more special one, God bless you all! (:

One Year Later

How fast time flies, its been already a year since the last entry was posted with so much that has happened within that short period of time (I'm finally eighteen!). Well, I realise such memories are too precious to be left forgotten, hence I have returned. And hopefully will consistantly.

blood drive @ NP

been on duties this week helping out the RCHN with the blood donation drive at NP campus. we received about an average of 100+ bags of blood a day, thanks to the generous supporters from both students and staff!

hah, in any case those of you who have not donated before might want to check out the size of the needles used! :)

normal sized needle

blood drawing needle (:

sinking of singapore?

'sinking of Japan' is finally out on the big screen after much anticipation. been watching the trailers on tv mobile and i guess its gonna be another of those 'Armageddon', 'Contact', 'Volcano', etc kind of movie. ratings are at 3 popcorns including #1 on japan box office!

ironically i dont understand why the japanese would wana catch a movie about the destruction of their country, and make it #1 some more! :\

Not our bus never stop for you, you never flag the bus early

an article from mrbrown.com with referrence to the news. one that many of us would totally agree with mann.

SINGAPORE : The SBS Transit has placed signs at 100 selected bus stops across Singapore, encouraging passengers to flag the bus early.

This will help bus captains stop at a timely manner and to ensure a smoother and safer ride for those onboard.

The operator has launched the public education campaign after receiving complaints that bus captains drove off from bus stops without picking up passengers.

Its subsequent investigations found that many commuters missed the bus because they often flagged too late.

Commuters can also pick up brochures on safe bus stop practices at 16 bus interchanges. - CNA /ls

So people, it is YOUR fault, ok?

Some forummers from Hardwarezone felt that instead of a "Flag the Bus Early" campaign, there should be campaigns for bus companies like:

"Slow Down the Damn Bus When Approaching Bus Stop" campaign
"Do Not Overtake a Fellow Bus When Approaching Bus Stop" campaign
"Buses Come More Regularly and at Shorter Intervals" campaign
"Buses should brake properly" campaign
"Cut down Bus Hikes" campaign

and of course, this gem:"Stop Wasting Money on Useless Campaigns" campaign

Feel free to suggest some more campaigns. In Singapore, we can never have too many campaigns.

source: mrbrown.com

a meaningful quote

instead of seeing suffering as a punishment, we are asked to see suffering as being personally kissed and embraced by the crucified Christ. he holds us so close and tight; we can feel the nails and thorns in our own body.

- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

to every little good thing in life

today was really a blessed day! with good news on the promotion of my buddies in jc and i myself was posted into an IS class with a pretty much nice tuitor and ongoing classmates, i feel fortunate as compared to the previous semester being under a demanding and screwed up tuitor. after of which was redcross training at fmss which finally resumed after quite some time. how else can the day be better and forward looking!

all in all, the first commercial sums up a friday for many of us after the tiring first week of school... or at least it seems so lah. haha :)



taken from youtube / mrbrown.com

hot stuff!

kim jong il has been making most of the headlines these days ever since his first nuclear test and threatening another. well, at least theres something 'exciting' to tune into on CNN and our very own CNA now.

but still, we should be very much concerned on NK's 'declaration of war' in retaliation to international sanctions and be praying about the fate of humanity.

haze haze go away

unfortunately due to the bad haze and poor visibility at sea, our boat and fishing trips out were cancelled. instead the dudes bunked in at my place and we spend the last week of holidays watching corny dvds such as eurotrip, date movie, american pie band camp (highly recommended!) and afew others of my personal favourites in the comfort of home. its common that the atmosphere at boonlay is usually filled with sweet aroma of chocs - from the factories. so now when you get it mixed with haze... all i get to smell here now is... burnt chocolate!? >.<

in any case, do take care friends! we are encouraged to stay indoors if the PSI is above a hundred. if a record of PSI 150 was considered buay tar han for us already, imagine what it would have been like for our neighbour with a record of 500!

mr & mrs Spongebob

incase you didnt know, spongebob's parents appeared on tv too! :)

OMG, how do sponges do it! sheesh.

what girls really want

sometimes we wonder whats going on in a girl's mind... perhaps these few compositions by girls from a p5 class whom were made to write on the topic, 'My Ideal Partner' could tell it all. yes, primary 5 ok.

compo 1
for my ideal partner, he must truely love me. he must be responsible, adventurous, romantic, and a guy who doesnt like to show off and doesnt steal, and must be kind hearted. if he is not up to all these points, i cannot be his girlfriend. but it is hard to find these kind of men nowadays.

he can spend two times a week or three with me. but if he needs to study, i will understand. he must be someone who doesnt lose his temper easily. if he quarells with me, he will try and patch up again. i will only give him 3 days time limit to let him patch up with me.

if he buys me many times, i will reject them all.i will ask him to donate it to the old folks' home or a children hospital for the children in there.

he must know how to make me happy too. if he makes me sad, i will again give him 3 days to make me happy. that guy will fully love me and not anyone else. if he does not, i will ditch him right away.

for his looks, he does not need to be whatever cute, handsome, extra cute. a good looking guy does not mean he is the mr PERFECT for grls. he does not need to be rich too. spending his money on me is a waste ( yar right)

in all, the perfect guy for me must be all the points i mentioned.


compo 2
my ideal partner must be a very kind, generous, loving, caring, playful and responsible for all his doings. he must not always be in hot temper, and they must not be cunning and always lie to me.

he must not be those who like 'pretend' to be a good guy before marriage like those on TV, they always ditch away their wife after that.

okay, you see those ang moh, they always act as they are so good but after you marry them they will like kill you. i want my boyfriend to be smart not cunning.

he WILL have to have the time to accompany me to play. always bringing me out for adventures and long adventures and interesting too! with my friends along too! he must be older than me!

compo 3
to me, i think he must be thinking about the future and knows what i want and like. when a begger or helpless man shows up, he must be willing to part with some money. he must be decisive and when made a decision, he will never regret. gives and takes whenever we argue, must be forgiving, loyal, faithful. when anything goes wrong, must be calm and discuess the problem with me. never keep secrets from me. and allows me to work to earn extra income for the household. must have a sense of fashion and never argues with my parents. if my ideal partner is in a business, i will give ideas to help.

compo 4
my ideal partner must be understanding, kind hearted, friendly , tall, handsome, trustable, handsome, have good studying qualification. he must also be rich and have to love shopping. so that i can go shopping with him. my ideal partner has to be also thoughtful. he must not do anything that breaks the law. he must be hardworking, romantic , caring, loving and must NOT be a two-timer. he must be able to decide decisins quickly, humorous and does things well. he must be able to support the family and receive good salary.

he must know how to do housework such as mopping and doing of the laundry. he cannot be a divorcee. he must lend a helping hand to those people who have difficulties. he must not be stingy. he must be faithful and sincere, must be honest. when we quarell, he must be able to give into me and must be loyal to me. my ideal partner cannot be a smoker, be able to communicate to me well. he must have to be a graduate. he must be cautious and careful. he will also have to take care of the environment.

the end.

oh my... so demanding. *glups* guys, now we know... hahas.

last week on the job

its the last week on the job and that has no doubt stirred up pretty much emotion. it wasnt surprising to find myself so quickly attached to the job in such a short period of time. besides the adorable little ones (monsters included) whom i spend most of my time with and found so much joy upon, the other fellow relief teachers whom i share my desk with, and staff have made it such a pleasant time to be working, gossipping with and having many good laughs at the kids' work at the end of each day. so much was gained and learnt during this course of time. boy, does time flies... im gonna miss everyone and everything here.

til the next long vacation! :)

goodbye blue and yellow, welcome orange and brown

after much long procrastination, today was well used to clean, tidy up and adding a new colour to my room! i seem to like it this way :)

besides, kevin and enshao came to gym with me. like finally. now thats what you call a well-used day!

before
















































after

children's day

we celebrated children's day today and practically the whole day was given in to celebration although half of it was meant to be lessons. good on my part also, haha. a 2hr concert in the hall, and then games in the classroom and a movie screening for the kids in the 'after school' programme. we watched charlie and the chocolate factory! and better still they got served kachang pootah from us. free flow some more. at least they enjoyed themselves lah. one thing's for sure, they received better presents than us in the past mann. stickers, snacks and pencils were all we got. now they've got pouches, stationaries, books, ice cream! and many more! oh my goodness.

well, my only gift to you little ones out there is my prayer for you all to be good and obedient children of God who will grow to be faithful followers of Him and do-ers of His will with an everlasting mentality to seek righteousness and the heart to serve one another. Amen!

unfortunately we didnt sing the usual children day's song this time. for us who could remember, it's lyrics goes something like this;

Sama-sama maju ke hadapan
Pandai cari pelajaran
Jaga diri dalam kesihatan
Serta sopan-santun dengan kawan-kawan
Dengan hati bersih serta suci
Sama-sama hormat dan berbudi
Jaga tingkah pemuda-pemudi
Adat dan budaya junjung tinggi
Capailah lekas cita-cita pemudi-pemuda
Supaya kita ada harga di mata dunia

Kalau kita lengah serta lupa
Hidup kita sia-sia
Jiwa besar sihat serta segar
Rajin dengan sabar tentu bahagia
Lemah lembut perangai pemudi
Cergas tangkas wataknya pemuda
Suka rela selalu berbakti
Sikap yang pembela dan berjasa
Capailah nama yang mulia pemudi-pemuda
Rajinlah supaya berjaya semoga bahagia!

and after all these i finally found the translation. hah!

Together we progress
Clever at seeking knowledge
Take care of your health
And be courteous to your friends
With a clean and pure heart
We respect and do good to each other
Watch your behaviour, oh youths
Respect and honour your customs and traditions
Quickly reach your goals/dreams, oh youths
So that we'll have our worth, in this world

If we are lazy and forgetfulOur lives are worthless
A big heart and a fresh mind
Hardworking and patience will bring happiness
Soft-spoken is the lady
Energetic and tenacious is the man
Charitable, always contributing
Having a righteous spirit and doing good
Attain a respectable position, oh youths
Be hardworking so that you will succeed, may you achieve happiness!

so to all the kids out there including myself, have a happy and blessed children's day!

happy for me also cause i have monday off! whooray (:

forbidden city

caught forbidden city at the esplanade with chanel today - her treat, haha xie xie ni :). the acting was great, the music was amazing, the props were amusingly clever and the show was just fantastic. a local production all singaporeans should catch!

on the other hand, hady won singapore idol! i like johnathan better though. :(

TGIF

TGIF! yes, thank God its friday!

working the past 2 weeks have made me appreciate fridays and weekends much more.

being able to catch up with sec school friends i havent met for awhile, spending time with her, renting dvds and going down to borders, kino or ikea (if im not lazy that is) usually makes my day :)

uniquely me

ive been attached to an 'after school' programme that takes place everyday for the accademically weaker kids and those with family background problems. as though tuitoring and mentoring these lttle ones is already enough of a challege, now you have to control these kids to sit down and ensure they finish their homework for the day. 5 minutes of stoning at their worksheets and theyre up from their seats running around the classroom to find trouble with the other pupils. sheesh. as on the verge of blasting at them, i recalled the times i used to be one of these little terror myself, or perhaps worst. and likewise my parents would shout and cane me just to have me sit down and concentrate. the cane and the books usually went together. i'd run around the dinning table as my mom would chase me with the cane and sometimes she'd start laughing (i was cute back then), but of course that didnt happen most of the time. when she wasnt around i'd throw the canes out of the window but sadly she'd come home with even more. looking at the kids was perhaps another reflection of myself at that stage of life. now in their shoes, i realised then that it was never easy for my parents to control me (not that i was naughty but you know, boys will be boys :] ) but more importantly it must have had hurt them much more to have me disciplined in such a way. afterall, they only wanted what every parent wants for their child - the best. im grateful for how my parents had brought me up. i guess it was mostly the bad and terrorizing times that made me mature the most.

art lessons

the p2s had art lesson today and this was what they were made to draw after watching an episode from my lappy.

see if you can recongize these characters! haha.

getting familiar...?

2 days on the job

two days on the job and they sure have brought back much memories from the long forgotten days. for some reason, the food at the canteen still taste exactly the same ( the char siew rice, fried rice, loh mee, home cooked dishes, hor fan, liang mao shui, etc!) and so does the smell of the staff room. haha! was surprised to see many of the familiar faces still there after such a looong time. for those of us who could remember the few prominent ones - mrs habi (yes, she is still scolding the kids after every recess), ms angela leow (who never seems to age) mrs lisa soh (the music teacher), mr joshua tan (hah, you should know. he's in BB now) and many chinese teachers whose names i can never remember. haha.

a very warm and welcoming little family indeed. im sure im gonna like it here for the next 3 weeks :)

also, results were out today. nothing close to fantastic yet i thought a gpa of 3.5 was rather ok at least for the first time. so yep, im glad!

back to 'school' tomorrow

enough of camps and excessive computer gaming. my application of relief teaching at fmps got accepted and work begins tomorrow! :) the working hours isnt very ideal (10am -4pm) but will make the best of it lah. lets hope i'll be given a desk in the staff room too and that i'll haf free periods to do some surfing or updating this blog. heh heh. not forgetting that results will be released this friday, lets keep each other in our prayers.

in any case, check out our mobile 'cybercafe' that followed us wherever we went for the past week. whoo!

holidays (:

five days into the holidays and it already seems like so much's been done! it was the first time doing many things including baking cookies for teachers' day, muffins and sushi as well, going out to sea and spending close to 15hours of lan gaming with johnathan and gang. haha. whoo! now this is what you call HOLIDAYS :) but then again to those preparing for their exams, do look on the bright side, study hard now and look forward to your holidays too. JIAYOU!

movies movies movies...

its the start of a new week and gladly, also the school holidays xD. ive more or less gotten my programme for the week sorted out. time to do something productive lah hahas. interestingly, ive recently been very into Mr. Brown's podcasts and checking out the articles at talkingcock.com, and surprisingly Disney movies too. renting more dvds of them these days and somehow they never fail to make me happy watching them and i can just watch them over and over again without actually getting sick. maybe its the very family-oriented theme in its flicks that make them pleasant to watch and not forgetting the forever happy endings at the end of each movie.

but does that really apply in life?

anyways, some great Disney recommendations include; high school musical, tiger cruise, cadet kelly, ice princess, school of life, lizzie mcguire movie, mighty ducks, the pacifier and princess diaries :)

first aid competition

today was the first aid competition and kudos to both cadet and link teams from fairfield redcross which did really well and once again made us proud! xD




they got the 1st runner up overall with shijia having the highest for theory :)

and heres the champion dance team from the latest link talentime - fairfield rcy too!


P.S. all photos were taken by my trusty nokia N70.

exams are over

perhaps the stagnant blog was a result of having NO LIFE due to the latest exams. "mug mug mug", who says it doesn't exist in poly? hah. business statistics wasn't anywhere close to good and i guess the rest were just averagely done. sheeshh. nonetheless, its great to have the papers finished and its time to get on with my life! WHEE. i decided to really make full use of this vacation and not waste it away like i did for the first 3 months of this year. catching up with friends, picking up new skills and earning some bucks would be good. for a start, i've applied to do relief teaching at my primary school and looking forward to a positive reply soon. xD

hah, and finally i had the time to give this blog a new skin. thought the Tur Kua's (pig's liver) so cute! haha. if by now you dont know the story behind it, do click here for it's podcast! :)

my homeland

singaporeans are famous for complaining. true perhaps? maybe its because we live in a land where everything and anything is available and just simply, we're extremely fortune. many of us have grown up in a society whereby we take the comfort and peace for granted and expect even more from the government that can satisfy not our needs, but wants. while we 'protest' for things such as the raise in taxi fares, ERP charges, stressful and demanding education system and other politic issues, etc, we forget about those who protest for and desperately desire the very basics of a decent life - food, stable means of income, good governance, education for the kids and of course, peace. i never understand how people can go about talkin about their wishes to migrate and how they have never liked it here. for me, i feel theres so much we can be proud of about right here. besides all the good standard of living, leadership in governance that no doubt we can admire, an education that so many out there would have desired for but cannot afford, blah blah... but really, where else in the world could you be in whereby the journey to school, to the coffeeshop, to play, to homes of friends and relatives would take you less than an hour. not forgetting the security of our country and our personal security against riots, protests, violence, mobbing..., can never be experienced anywhere else in the world.
together with my loved ones, thats what makes it really feel like home here. =)

what a week

whoo, a busy and extremely occupied week it has been. right now its packing and getting ready for national camp thats tomorrow. til i return, allow the photos to tell the story =)

[founder's day dinner on friday at swissotel]

reuben and myself


batch of fmssrcy 05-06


tricia, chervon and dawn. my link members xD


us with our captain licenses! hah.


mr firhad, hidayat and myself

[link talentime on saturday at st margs sec]

the fmspsrcy link song team.

[catching the opening ceremony of the s'pore fireworks festival]








[national day parade on tuesday morning at fmss]

flag bearers at attention





CLT TAN and myself